A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Girlie-men Who Oppress People

TransGriot Note: Another TransGriot The Newspaper Column Classic post from my electronic archives I'm sharing with y'all and give you something to peruse while I'm traveling..This one is from September 2004.

Before I get into this month's column, let me remind you peeps that if you aren't registered, you have
until October 2 to do so. The GLBT community needs you to participate in the most important election in the last fifty years. It will determine the course of American history for the NEXT fifty years and have a major impact on the GLBT community.

Ah-nold Schwarzenegger recently grabbed headlines when he called his Democratic opponents in the
California General Assembly 'girlie-men'.

What's a girlie-man, anyway? To me, it's a person who's a bully or who won't stand up and do what's right instead of what's popular. The world's full of them, so let's start ferreting them out.

We'll start with the 'Kentucky Democrats' in the General Assembly who caved in to the Rethuglicans two
days before the 2004 session ended to pass that odious anti same-sex marriage amendment that Dr. Daniel
Mongiardo authored. That showed real courage to sell out ten percent of Kentucky's population for your own political gain. If you did it so that you could hold on to your seats in the Kentucky House, or in
Mongiardo's case beat Jim Bunning, I've got news for you. If a voter has a choice between an ersatz
Republican and a generic one, they'll go with the generic one every time. Chew on that thought at the
next party meeting. It's past time for 'Kentucky Democrats' to go back to being 'Progressive Democrats'
and start standing up for the little guy again.

Now in the local 'girlie-men' category, Jefferson County GOP chair Jack Richardson IV comes to mind.

The Republicans are so nervous about Junior getting his butt kicked that he dusted off his plans to use
poll watchers in West End and Newburg precincts. It's a clumsy attempt to suppress African-American turnout that harkens back to the days of Jim Crow racism. That has incensed the African-American community to the point where even Anne Northup had to denounce it.

Maybe we should send poll watchers wearing black berets or the Nation of Islam brothers to his home
precinct and other GOP leaning ones and see how he and his friends like it.

This pattern is happening nationally. The girlie-men in Florida repeated the 'let's strike African-American 'felons' off the voter rolls' trick and got caught. A GOP legislator in Michigan stated during an
interview that the only way to carry the state is 'suppress the Detroit vote.' Detroit has huge concentrations of motivated African-American and Arab voters, and they will be at the polls in force on November 2. If I had an (R) beside my name on the ballot I'd be nervous, too.

Metro Council member James Peden is another one. He's the lead dog in the efforts to kill the Fairness
law by trying to force a vote on it. What's with this conservative fetish to overturn civil rights laws for
people they don't like? He needs to heed the wisdom of Nelson Mandela, who so eloquently stated that
'majority rule is not intended to suppress the views, the hopes, and the aspirations of the minority.'
Peden's attempting to create a wedge issue to use against Democrats in conservative-leaning districts in
their bid to gain a GOP Metro Council majority. If that happens, you can count on much right-wing
mischief coming out of Metro Council chambers after that.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my least favorite pseudo-Texan, girlie-man George Walker Bush.
I'll save my comments about him for next month's column.

TransGriot Tip Jar

Official TransGriot Technology Sponsor 2016

About The TransGriot

Monica Roberts, AKA the TransGriot (Gree-oh) is a native Houstonian, GLAAD award nominated blogger, writer, and award winning trans human rights advocate. She's the founding editor of TransGriot, and her writing has appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post and the Advocate.
She works to foster understanding and acceptance of trans people inside and outside communities of color and was recently honored with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award

TransGriot Blog Mission Statement

The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

--Mission Statement compiled January 2, 2011

The TransGriot Loves Comments

Feel free to leave comments on the posts. But bear in mind that you are guests in my cyberhome. As soon as I get to them, your comments are posted at my pleasure.

They will post as soon as I approve them, so no need to repeat sending them.

I strive to make it a safe zone for people to respectfully express themselves, but I have zero tolerance for hate speech, transphobic or blatantly disrespectful comments or ad spam.

I reserve the right to edit your comments for clarity or not post them at all.

2014, 2017 GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Blog Finalist

2011 BWA Best LGBT Blog Finalist

2010 BWA Judges' Vote Winner Best LGBT Blog

2015-2017 NLGJA Member

TransGriot Speaking/Education Efforts Info

The TransGriot is available for speaking engagements, college lectures, panel discussions, media interviews, conferences or Trans 101 education efforts for your school, business or professional organizations.

For local Houston area, Texas or national events, you can e-mail me at transgriot@yahoo.com

For events outside the Houston metro area, I ask that my travel and lodging expenses be covered.

This is separate from my speaking fee.

If you are interested in having me appear as a speaker or panelist, you can e-mail me with the date and details of your proposed event.

Please book as early as possible because my speaking and event calendar slots during the year rapidly fill up.

CMBA Disclaimer

This personal blog allows me to express my constitutionally guaranteed First Amendment free speech rights and kick knowledge to y'all at the same time on various issues.

Nothing in it shall be construed, spun, remixed, altered or interpreted to mean it represents the views of my employers or the boards of the organizations that I sit on.

Photos and videos posted to this blog are used for illustrative purposes only and unless noted in the post or linked article, photos/videos don't indicate or are not intended to imply the person depicted in said photo/video is transgender